Parents, Pupils Protest School's New Dress Code

Andrew Stevens, a 5th grader at North Elementary School in Des Plaines, and his mother, Susan, believe clothes are a statement of individuality. Witness the earring in his left lobe.

On a day when he was supposed to wear only solid colors and a shirt with a collar, Andrew showed up Thursday in jean shorts and a striped T-shirt.

Parent Gill Bakulinski does not mind conformity. Her 1st and 3rd graders happily donned attire in keeping with the school's new dress code, as did their 2-year-old and 1-year-old siblings.

And so the battlelines were drawn on the first day of school at North, where children wearing khaki pants and red polo shirts or navy blue smocks and white blouses streamed past a picket line of parents and children opposed to the new clothing rules.

"We don't need a dress code. North School is safe," yelled the nearly 20 protesters as they circled a grassy area near the front doors. Kids in Hawaiian shirts, jean shorts, flowery dresses and Barbie platform shoes carried signs saying, "Clone Sheep. Not Kids," and "Uniforms Get an F."

Resisting parents claim the rules are costly-- with four sets of clothes costing around $300--and suppress individuality. The group's leader, Jill Morgenthaler, wants the board of Des Plaines School District 62 to reconsider its April decision to impose the dress code.

The parents plan to send their children in regular clothes at least until the end of the week. Children not dressed correctly will be warned and could eventually receive detentions and in-house suspensions.

Dress-code supporters say such a policy promotes equality and in the long run is cheaper for parents and less of a headache.

Children who were dressed in accordance with the rules eyed their protesting classmates and displayed how they managed to express their individuality: butterfly clips in the hair, a choker and an unusual shade of hair dye.

Marc Gahala grudgingly wore his khaki pants and white shirt. But the 4th grader on school patrol dyed part of his spiked hair blue and complained.

"I can't choose what I want to wear," he said.

His fellow patrol, Alejandra Espinoza, in a navy blue skirt and white shirt, said she liked the new rules because she used to be stared at on the playground in her T-shirts and tight pants.

"Now I would just tell them you're wearing the same thing," she said.

The policy, devised by a group of parents, prohibits logos and monograms. Footwear is restricted to sneakers or dress shoes. Pants, dresses, jumpers, skirts or shorts must be navy blue or khaki. Shirts can be long- or short-sleeved but must have a collar. Colors include white, red and powder blue. No plaids, stripes or patterns are allowed for tops or bottoms.

Principal Terri Carman, herself donning a jungle-theme nail polish, said she asked the school board to approve the dress code after two surveys showed a majority of parents wanted it.

At the end of the year, the program will be evaluated and could be dissolved if there are no improvements in behavior as hoped, she said.

Carman hopes a more formal look will change some of the aggressive behavior teachers saw last year on the playground and keep gangs out of the school. With North's cultural and socioeconomic diversity, fewer children will be teased over clothes and more attention will be focused on education, she said.

But some disagree.

"There's no need for it at our school," said parent Kelly Stermer-Guichon. "We have no violence issues."